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I want to replace a futon. It is the old, thick cotton kind that became popular in the ’80s — no foam, no springs. Ten years ago you could look in the back of the sleazy local “alternative” newspaper and find ads for futon shops that would sell you a plain 8-inch-thick cotton futon for a modest price. Now I look and the shops are gone. On the Internet “futon” means a piece of furniture that incidentally has a mattress that kind of, sort of looks like the same type of thing that used to be called a futon. You can google “futon mattress” but these are now mostly pseudo-mattress contraptions containing springs or foam. I have slept on a foam-containing futon and it was comfortable, but I prefer all-cotton ones, in part because they all feel the same and therefore I know what I am getting. Further googling, on the term “Japanese futon”, yields better results, but the Japanese-futon merchants seem to be selling a much thinner futon than what I am looking for. They appear also to be charging a premium for the authentic Japanese-futon experience, which involves a tiny Japanese apartment where you sleep on an authentic Japanese futon on top of an authentic tatami mat and then roll everything up in the morning to make the most of your limited space. Thanks but I thought we had moved past that here. To use a cotton futon comfortably on a conventional slatted bed frame the futon needs to be at least six inches thick, preferably 8 or 9 inches. This is an American futon. But are they even available anymore? I can’t tell if the market has changed or if I am merely looking in the wrong places.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 2:39 am and is filed under Personal Narrative.
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36 Responses to “Where Have All The Futons Gone?”

Six inches futons sound good in winter or with air conditioning, but all that cotton would absorb and store the body heat in summer. Here in Thailand they sell one inch mats that they lay on a reed mat placed on the floor. Very comfortable and cool! Especially if you’re living in a Thai style raised house. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO6RygPVmZU

In the short winters and rainy season when it’s cooler you pile on covers and clothing. ;)

Have used western styled mattresses over here and their pure hot without air-conditioning.

Same with padded furniture.

Remember when I was young looking at pictures of royal Chinese furniture, it looked like lacquered hard wood and had no padding, always wondered how it could be comfortable, but in summer the wood is cool to the touch until you’ve sat for a while, then you can shift to a cool spot. In winter you can add cushions.

Not trying to hijack your thread, just thought the contrast might be interesting.

I noticed that futon shops, especially those that were small businesses, began to quietly disappear in the late 90s. This was right around the time we all began down the path of conspicuous consumption hysteria. You know granite, chrome, stove that costs more than three month’s wages (gross)! But somehow during all this, and I don’t know when it happened, we moved back to modernism. One thing that is also interesting about this time, is that a lot of college students went up market in terms of their expenditures for off-campus rents and their furnishings. Now in our so called post-modernist world, too many people are buying blocky, unimaginative, MODERNIST-inspired furnishings. One problem though is that this modernism has even infected China, India, Thailand, etc.

Got to go– I have an appointment to buy some good ag-land that I can sell to the next landfill developer. In about five years they are going to need someplace to pile all this junk.

The futons I remember from my student and medical resident days were lumpy, hard and uncomfortable. And yet, I have very fond memories of those “just starting out in life” days.

I agree with AT Sherwood. I grew up in a college town and what I hear is that the old dorm culture and renting a single room has gone the way of off-campus apartments with cable, internet hook-ups and destination weddings for the young starter marriages. I am being a jerk. The kids are sweet, it’s just the zeitgeist of the times. Hence magazines like Living Simple and the endless pop-culture memoirs about simplifying your life and, er, living simply.

I always liked mid-century modern until it became more Mad Men and less Billy Wilder.

Er, slightly edit the above to read: “I am being a jerk, I know. The kids aren’t the problem. They ARE sweet. It’s just the zeitgeist.

Be careful sharing your stories of renting rooms, sharing an apartment or taking a couple of part-time jobs making ends meet. The NYT will discover it as a new “sign of the times” and do a lifestyle section article on it.

When did the early sweet beginnings of a young working life with its have-the-friends-over spaghetti dinners and futons become so horrible? I know I always harp on Apartment Therapy around here and on my currently in hibernation blog, but I love that the people on that site are creative and thrifty. Beauty is a thing you can create all by yourself with what you find around you. A swathe of paint in an amazing color, an unusual photo ripped out of a magazine, and a funky garage sale frame – and there you go. You create it, you make it, it’s really very pretty that way.

Why wouldn’t you rather rent your own room and do your own thing than back in with the parents? Although, I totally lived with my parents in college for a few years. Saved a bundle.

Here is where I used to shop for stuff like this in Chicago. They had a couple of stores, but I haven’t been in one for years, but they apparently won an award so are still in business. Check them out.

Also I was right out of college and bought a futon that was never delivered for $300 and I was pretty pissed off and went after a store for a long time. That was probably about 1/2 my net worth at that era.

I’d personally take an internet hookup over cable TV. A connection can easily be shared via WiFi (and possibly with the use of cantennas), thus cutting costs for a group of people. It’s even better with a resellable commercial connection.

There are a few cell phone plans that allow unlimited 4G access (while acting as a WiFi hotspot), so that’s always an option.

Don’t know about futons but I had (am having) a similar experience with with hibachis. I used to have a heavy cast iron grill about 15 inches square that would take enough charcol to let me cook a steak. Can’t find one anywhere.
No futons, no hibachis, maybe it’s a conspiracy!

Move to Jersey. Anything, and I mean *anything*, you could possibly want you can find retail here. There are 2 separate futon stores on Rt 46 less than 5 miles from where I live.

One of them is a little foo-foo (futon mattresses with inner springs? please, no) but the other is more ‘traditional’. Not too long ago we bought an 8″ all cotton mattress to replace the one on the ‘couch’ (also the bed, it’s my futon from my single days) in our spare bedroom/office.

I’ve bought a couple from these people. Note that they are temporarily not shipping futons because of hitches with Federal fire retardant standards (your gov’t at work). But presumably they will be soon.

We bought a futon back in 2004 from a local furniture store here in a small town in Rhode Island — wood construction built by a small company in (I believe) Maine with the kind of thick non-spring mattress you are talking about. We liked it so much and found it so comfortable and practical that we bought a second one. These are not like those hundred dollar flimsy things you might find in a storefront discount furniture shop in a college neighborhood; this is solid construction and costs around eight hundred bucks. The furniture store where we bought them — Sheldon Furniture, Main Street, Wakefield, RI — has been owned and run by the same family since 1852. You are probably outside of their delivery zone, but just wanted to let you know that what you are looking for does exist.

Greg: “Move to Jersey. Anything, and I mean *anything*, you could possibly want you can find retail here.”

The Traveling Wilburys » Tweeter And The Monkey Man by Bob Dylan

Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man

Tweeter was a boy scout before she went to Vietnam
And found out the hard way nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found freedom just across the Jersey Line
So they hopped into a stolen car took Highway 99

Chorus:
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they’re standing
Never saw them when they fell

The undercover cop never liked the Monkey Man
Even back in childhood he wanted to see him in the can
Jan got married at fourteen to a racketeer named Bill
She made secret calls to the Monkey Man from a mansion on the hill

It was out on thunder road – Tweeter at the wheel
They crashed into paradise – they could hear them tires squeal
The undercover cop pulled up and said “Everyone of you’s a liar
If you don’t surrender now it’s gonna go down to the wire”

Chorus

An ambulance rolled up, a state trooper close behind
Tweeter took his gun away and messed up his mind
The undercover cop was left tied up to a tree
Near the souvenir stand by the old abandoned factory

Next day the undercover cop was-a hot in pursuit
He was taking the whole thing personal
He didn’t care about the lootJan had told him many times it was you to me who taught
In Jersey anything’s legal as long as you don’t get caught

Chorus

Someplace by Rahway prison they ran out of gas
The undercover cop had cornered them said “Boy, you didn’t think that this could last”
Jan jumped out of bed said “There’s someplace I gotta go”
She took a gun out of the drawer and said “It’s best if you don’t know”

The undercover cop was found face down in a field
The monkey man was on the river bridge using Tweeter as a shield
Jan said to the Monkey Man “I’m not fooled by Tweeter’s curl
I knew him long before he ever became a Jersey girl”

Chorus

Now the town of Jersey City is quieting down again
I’m sitting in a gambling club called the Lion’s Den
The TV set was blown up, every bit of it is gone
Ever since the nightly news show that the Monkey Man was on

I guess I’ll go to Florida and get myself some sun
There ain’t no more opportunity here, everything’s been done
Sometime I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan
Sometimes I don’t think about nothing but the Monkey Man

Six inches futons sound good in winter or with air conditioning, but all that cotton would absorb and store the body heat in summer.

I guess it all depends on the climate where one resides. I’ve been sleeping on the same futon mattress on a bed frame I made twenty years ago. Under the sheet I place an absorbent “pad” that I replace every two years or so. It also helps that in the high country of Colorado, night time temperatures rarely exceed 20 degrees C (70F).